You are right mike I forgot to mention that. I'm not sure what the life cycle is on mealy bugs. You may be able to google that, but you will need to do a follow up treatment a few times unless you can find a product that will kill eggs. Jenny swears by this in her post titled The Best Stuff Ever. But keep in mind that what works for one may not always work for another. Generally I have found this to work extremly well. The initial application and soaking knocked out the live pests I had on my plants and fungal issues as well as dried up some rot areas on a poor phal I bought at discount from Lowe's. After that the follow up treatments kept them from overtaking the plant after more possibly hatched. I did two follow up treatments on my phals. But it is up to you definitely what you decide to use. I think whatever works best for you go for it as long as it doesn't hurt the plant and gets rid of those mealies that is what matters
I like to us natural things when I can just because I have two tree frogs and a three year old. It scares me having chemicals and stuff around he gets into things quickly and stealthily now. can't leave him alone with the orchids it makes me nervous.